Lea, the spaghetti lioness

Watched by camera-toting journalists, in January 2002 a very remarkable lioness
named Lea arrived at the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve near Johannesburg, South
Africa, after a 30-hour journey from Rome, Italy.1

Why ‘very remarkable’? Because this seven-year-old female feline did not fit the
‘ferocious carnivore’ lion stereo­type, having been raised not on meat but on a
diet of potatoes, green vegetables and cheesy pasta. Lea had in fact been nicknamed
the ‘Spaghetti Kid’ after her favourite food, spaghetti, which she especially loved
flavoured with Neapolitan sauce.2,3 And now the caretakers at her
new home in South Africa were facing ‘the real challenge’, for the first time in
Lea’s life, of introducing this ‘Spaghetti Kid’ to meat and to the companionship
of other lions.

Background

Photos by Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve

Antonio introduces his beloved Lea to her new home—his dream to find her a
new home has finally become reality. But the seven-year-old lioness must now face
the challenge of learning to eat meat—for the first time in her life.

Lea’s mother lived in Naples Zoo, which had a policy of selling the cubs born there.
So at the tender age of six weeks, Lea found herself in the Italian village of Nettuno
in the care of a man called Antonio Vincenzo. The two seemed inseparable; Lea slept
on Antonio’s bed at night and accompan­ied him everywhere by day, without any leash
or restraint—across busy streets, among crowds and even to the local supermarket.
No wonder that ‘everyone in Nettuno knew Lea’, and of her diet of spaghetti, vegetables and tomato sauce.4

But when Lea was a year old, Antonio’s work circumstances changed and he could no
longer look after his ‘pet’ at his home. A zoo on the outskirts of Rome agreed to
accommodate Lea, provided Antonio supplied the zoo with her food. And so Lea continued
to grow on her diet of pasta, ricotta cheese and vegetables. But, seeing her confined
to a 4 m x 4 m (13 ft x 13 ft) concrete enclosure at the zoo, Antonio resolved to
find Lea better living quarters. (Antonio visited her every Sunday—the lioness
would whimper and cry when it was time for him to leave.2)

After years of fruitless searching,5
eventually the way was clear for Lea to be sent to South Africa—Antonio would
accompany her on the journey and remain at Lea’s new home for a few weeks to help
her adapt.

A ‘strange’ diet?

Given Lea’s distinctive nickname (‘Spaghetti Lioness’) and the publicity associated
with her move to South Africa, many people got to hear of what Lea had eaten for
the first seven years of her life—and were amazed. One journalist wrote: ‘Notwithstanding
her strange diet she thrived.’ This lioness had not only survived (for
seven years), but thrived on a meatless diet from infancy.

But Lea is not unique in recent (lion) history in having successfully been raised
on a meatless diet. A renowned vegetarian lioness in the USA did not eat meat at
all during her entire lifetime.6,7 And many other animals normally
regarded as being meat-eaters (e.g. dogs8,
vultures9), are known to be able
to live on meatless diets.

To understand such a situation, we need to go back into history. But which
history is correct—evolution or the Bible? It just doesn’t make sense if one
has an evolutionary perspective—that this is a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world, and that
animals with sharp teeth, claws and beaks evolved over millions of years to be meat-eaters.

In contrast, the Bible tells us that felines were originally created vegetarian
(Genesis 1:30) and it also speaks of a time when ‘the lion
will eat straw like the ox’ (Isaiah 11:7, 65:25). So, from the Bible, vegetarian ‘carnivores’
make much more sense.10

Arriving in South Africa

Kalahri Raptor Centre

Lea in her Italian zoo enclosure.

As Lea emerged from her transportation crate at her grassy new home, a crowd of
camera-clicking reporters awaited the photo opportunity: Lea devouring
her first South African meal of pasta, cheese and sliced tomato.

But Lea took one sniff and walked away.

‘No, no, no,’ said Antonio. ‘It has to be Italian pasta and cheese, and tomato sauce—never
cut tomatoes.’

As they say—you can travel the world, but there’s nothing like good old home
cooking!

Post Script: Lea’s new caretakers at The Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve have advised
us that she was weaned from spaghetti in one week and now has ‘absolutely no problem’
with fresh red meat, which is fed to her—she does not hunt.

The Bible doesn’t detail how the change from herbivory
to carnivory (and carcass scavenging) occurred after the Fall; perhaps divine redesign
or the expression of latent genetic potential, predesigned in foreknowledge of the
Fall. Thus, even if lions today did need meat to survive, it would not
invalidate Genesis. See Batten, D. (Ed.) The Creation Answers Book, chapter
6, Creation Ministries International, Australia, 2006. Return to text.